Topic: Coronavirus outbreak

I just wanted to point out that when I went to the big plaza with all the major stores a couple of days ago, there were just enough of a lack of people there compared to normal to feel like the Thanos snap had happened. It felt super weird, honestly it might've felt less weird if there was almost no one.

I also have to admit, I have a weird lack of negative emotions about this whole thing. Not just because I'm sure I'll be fine, because that's described MANY things that have made me feel miserable in recent years, so don't you even dare get me wrong on that. I don't know why, but I think I'm just so used to people with power having a **** you attitude to everyone else, that the relative amount of actual human decency and interest in normal human lives is legit well above normal at least. People are coming together despite their differences for an actually good reason, I'll take it.

Also stuff like the Gamestop thing is so insane I can't help but find it hilarious, as bad as it is.

@RR529 Was going to import something from China in January but I never did. And now I'm more afraid of what's on it's way from Stockholm than if I had ordered something from East Asia, with how horribly our government has handled this situation and mainstream media and so called experts downplaying it, going the opposite way than the rest of the world. The numbers so far might not look that bad, but only hospitalised people are tested so they are not accurate at all.

@NEStalgia I agree with your posts. Sweden's very lax with both travellers and immigration, just letting anyone wander into the country with no checks or quarantining gave us bedbugs and other pests we had gotten rid of, and travelling during a pandemic gave us the coronavirus. The first few cases from China and Iran, but what made it explode here as well was Swedes coming back from vacation in Italy.

People are stockpiling here as well, the stores are full of people and the shelves are empty. Masks and sanitisers went first, then toilet paper, pasta and canned food, then flour and baking supplies and now everything else. People are congregating more than ever both with all the panic shopping and how the consensus seems to be that it's just a flu and nothing to worry about because the authorities said so. Isolation is boring and they want to "live" and continue travelling domestically and abroad, going to their bars and restaurants and whatnot.

@Tyranexx Well there is such a thing as actual fake news. There are "legit" fake news groups out there putting out outright lies. That's just not the mainstream media or even "new media" like some people call it.

Depending on where they are trying to lie to, they'll have some name that sounds real but anyone paying attention will note they've never heard of it. Like "American New Network" or "United Broadcasting Corp" or something like that. And usually it's pretty easy to spot as fake if you notice that no one else is talking about something outrageous like "Hillary Clinton admits to alien testing in secret Deep State facility in Idaho!"

Oh and tabloids, I've always pictured them as fat, unwashed stalkers who dig through celebrity trash - literally through their trash - looking for nonsense to talk about. xD

I’d come back from a week off from work just this week, and now I’m on unpaid leave for the foreseeable future. I work in a hotel, and the government had recently advised people to stay away from bars, pubs and restaurants.
The hotel lost something like £70000 in business in 24 hours, and all staff were put on unpaid leave starting next week. Of course, the government didn’t enforce closure on such venues, so I spent the last few days cleaning odds and ends in the kitchen, plus the few plates from the four guests who were staying until Sunday, but now my week is over, and I’ll be idle for the next however many months.

I’d recently moved into the city, and there are many who’ll be struggling with their rent (my rent is pretty cheap, and I’ve got plenty saved), but nethertheless, I’ve returned to my parents in this time, as I normally live in a place where it would be very difficult to live if I were to have to self-isolate. Also, it being an apartment with shared facilities, I stand a better chance of avoiding the virus away from such a place.

God, I hate these f-ing hoarders. This is the fourth day in a row that I've made useless trips to several super markets in an effort to get my hands on some toilet paper. Even after the prime minister, the local health department AND retail supervisors have expressly stated numerous times on TV that hoarding is NOT necessary because there's ample supply of just about everything, they STILL keep doing it, and in the process they're not only preventing other people from getting these things, but they're also disrupting the supply chain, which creates an artificial shortage, confirming their insane beliefs.

I'm not the vindictive kind, but once people start interfering with my personal life, then all bets are off.
With my current stock, I'm only two weeks away from having to come up with other inventive ways to wipe off...

I really, REALLY hope that all these anti-social, egotistical toilet paper hoarders will soon suffer a massive case of constipation. That'll teach them how useless it is to hoard something that you really don't need six times the regular amount of...

@ThanosReXXX I know your pain. I haven't bought TP since the craze started last week, but I'm on my last roll and a half. Went to the supermarket this afternoon, they had none. Even the expensive eco-friendly paper was all sold out.

@1UP_MARIO Indeed... What the world has come to. (shakes head)

@Octane Yeah... and normally, they'd rather cut off their right hand than buy all that expensive stuff, but now the panic has struck them, they all of a sudden don't care about that anymore...

@ThanosReXXX I seriously wonder, what do people's homes look like? Toilets stacked with TP. Overflowing cabinets with pasta and crisps. Where do they keep it all?

We grabbed a few cases of TP when this first started going down. Enough to last us a while. Nothing ridiculous. I'm glad we did, because you can't find the stuff anywhere.

@Octane In the former room(s) of the kid(s) who were old enough to leave home to go live at a place of their own.

@Ralizah, same here. I bought an 18 pack to put away a few weeks before the frenzy started, which turned out to be a good move since you can't find any at the moment (we got a secondary break too, as my mother works in a grocery store, and she got a 12 pack when they found some extra stock in storage and gave it to employees, so we should be good).

I'm waiting for something from China I got on ebay. I didn't realise it was from China until after I'd bought it, cos the seller lied about their location. Nice of them.

I'm just gonna wipe it down with disinfectant wipe things when/if it arrives. The various doctors I've seen interviewed about it say that the virus is quite vulnerable outside of the body and can be destroyed by just being rubbed, if it's on a smooth surface.

@Dezzy I think that the max amount of time the virus can live outside of a body is around 4 to 12 hours. So don't worry that much. If it was that durable they would've stopped the deliveries of anything worldwide.

People lie because most panickers would decline order just because it is from China which is stupid.

"OMG my phone is from China I could get COVID-19 just from speaking with it!!!"

Time for people to start investing in reusable toilet paper.

Start knitting!

@Zuljaras

The info I've seen suggests it depends on the surace. Only a few hours on rough surfaces. Longer on smooth and cold surfaces. Apparently smooth metal and plastic it can survive over a day.

@Eel Erm.... Ew? 💩 🧻

@Eel
"reusable toilet paper"

Eh, really?! 😣

@Heavyarms55 I was poking fun at one of the mantras leveled at the actual news organizations. The news they report on is legit, it's just that they give it their own subtle spin/bias.

There are plenty of fake, non-reputable sources out there too. Ignoring wonderful satirical organizations like The Onion, those posers unfortunately do exist. One article that I read awhile back on one of those Facebook account schemes made my skin crawl. It was one that churned out fake and/or embellished blurbs and small news pieces that were only there to generate clicks and followers. Others would then pay the account holder to either hype up their service via random advertising blurbs mixed in with their content or would buy the profitable accounts entirely. Some of the blame falls to the gullible - because everything on the internet is ABSOLUTELY, 100% TRUE - but the fact that someone, outside of a normal troll, would generate all that just in the name of profit is disgusting.

The sad thing about tabloids is that we know the only reason they still exist is because there's an audience. Why anyone would even waste money on the things.... :shrug: